Ms Tan Su Shan, Deputy CEO and Group Head of Institutional Banking, DBS Bank
Ms Janet Ang, Chairman, Singapore Business Federation Foundation
Ladies and Gentlemen,
1. A very good afternoon.
2. Thank you for inviting me to join you in this event. This year also marks the 10th anniversary of DBS Foundation, which makes this even more meaningful.
3. Allow me to briefly share my thoughts on how our approach to creating social impact in Singapore has changed over the years, and how we can make partnerships for social impact more effective and sustainable.
Evolving Challenges, Evolving Approaches
4. In Singapore’s early years of independence, many people struggled to provide for themselves. Unemployment was high, housing and sanitation was poor. At the time, the Government focused its very limited resources on improving living standards and employment opportunities across the board. So basic housing, education, healthcare, creating a business-friendly environment to create job opportunities.
5. Today, we are a vibrant modern city-state with a much better standard of living than when we first started. Yet, at the same time, the challenges of maintaining social mobility and tackling inequality have become more complex. Some lower-income families work hard to build better lives for themselves, but they may find it difficult to sustain progress because they face interlocking challenges. These include health issues, caregiving duties, family problems, debt and financial difficulties, and so on. And although I describe them discretely, for many of these families, they are interrelated.
6. Different families, thus require different forms of support. We had therefore shifted in the 1990s from providing universal support, to providing more support for those who have less. So began means-testing, in order to identify those who needed more support. To accompany this shift, our agencies also developed specific expertise in the assistance we provide.
a. For example, MOE has expertise in learning support and administers the Financial Assistance Scheme for those who require additional financial support in school;
b. MOH runs a comprehensive means-tested scheme for healthcare;
c. HDB assists families who have no other housing options with the Public Rental Scheme.
d. Many charities and social service agencies, as well as corporates doing corporate social responsibility, also specialise in terms of the demographic groups whom they support and the kinds of interventions they offer.
7. This is good and necessary, because when you specialise, you build deep expertise and know the subject matter better. You can understand the causes and the downstream implications.
8. Even so, a system where everyone specialises in the assistance they provide may unintentionally make it harder for these families to get the holistic support they need to achieve a breakthrough. The criteria for assistance may not always line up identically, families might have to submit the same documents and undergo interviews numerous times, and there may be multiple points of contact which families have to handle. This means families may get fragmented support, and may have to run the gauntlet and carry the burden of going to different organisations.
9. This is why we continually refresh and update our overall approach to providing social support. We do not just want to do more – we want to collectively do better. As Prime Minister Lawrence Wong outlined in Forward Singapore, we are making a shift from social assistance to social empowerment. This means a shift beyond siloed short-term assistance focused on meeting basic needs, to more coordinated and longer-term support where we journey with families to tackle their challenges and achieve their aspirations, and partner the community to organise services around each family’s needs. This means we pool all the specialist support that we provide to the family as a whole. But this also requires families to strengthen their sense of agency and ownership over their own circumstances, giving them the confidence to improve their lives.
10. In practice, we need to establish a robust social service ecosystem where assistance is much more comprehensive, convenient, and coordinated. We need to ensure that we are able to weave and connect social, health, and community in a triangle of support for these families. Where we look at the strengths and needs of the family as a whole rather than in silo, and put the family at the centre of our work.
11. ComLink+ encapsulates this refreshed approach I just talked about. We launched it a couple of years ago. Under ComLink+, families will be supported by dedicated Family Coaches and volunteer befrienders who will journey and motivate them towards achieving their goals. Family Coaches and families will work together to develop dynamic action plans, which are tailored to each family’s aspirations and needs. Family coaches will also act as a single point of contact to help families navigate support services.
12. We have recently introduced Progress Packages to recognise and supplement families’ efforts. ComLink+ families who take active steps to improve their circumstances will receive financial top-ups through the progress packages.
Deepening Partnerships
13. For programmes like ComLink+ to succeed, we need to strengthen the collaboration between government agencies and the social services, and deepen our partnership with corporates and the wider community. We each have our own expertise and capabilities, and our combined strength is greater than the sum of our individual parts.
a. The Government provides broad based social support, and coordinates resources and information that would enable the success of other stakeholders.
b. Community partners, being closest to the ground, build bonds of trust with the community, and know the needs of stakeholders best.
14. Let me share with you a real-life example of ComLink+ at work, using an anonymised family that we have been supporting.
15. This is a family – father and mother - with 5 children. The eldest son has just completed NS, started work. He married at a young age and he and his wife have a child, and are expecting another. The wife’s young sibling is also living with them because the wife’s parents are incarcerated.
16. The 2-room rental flat where they live is too much of a squeeze. So, the Family Coach and befriender worked with HDB, and got the young couple their own rental flat nearby.
17. Because the wife stopped work to look after her 2 children and her young sibling, the SSO and the local grassroots provided financial assistance, diapers, milk powder and other essentials. The Family Coach and befriender will also work with the family on infant care and childcare placements.
18. Recently, a senior e2i job coach joined the Family Coach to visit the young family, because the young man wanted to get a better job, so that he can buy his own HDB home for his family. But he had skills gaps that needed to be closed. So e2i worked with the local ComLink+ alliance to get some of his vocational courses fully sponsored. And they reached out to the CEO of the company that he worked in, to ensure that these additional vocational skills were relevant to the company, and the young man could aspire to higher level job openings in the firm.
19. Soon, HDB’s Home Ownership Support Team will work with this family on the practical aspects of their home ownership aspiration.
20. Having seen how ComLink+ pulls together many stakeholders to support our families, the natural question is: What can businesses and corporations do? You bring two unique value propositions which are instrumental for sustained social impact. First, each business has specific skills or competencies that can be harnessed to meet specific needs of lower-income families.
21. In the case of DBS and DBS Foundation and peers in the banking sector, you have special expertise in financial literacy and financial planning. This is a skillset which many families need; it is also the type of support that you, rather than Government, are better placed to provide.
22. DBS and DBS Foundation have demonstrated this in your partnership with MSF on ComLink+. Your teams provided financial literacy training for our MSF family coaches, which has enabled them to better support our ComLink+ families. In addition, over 400 DBS employees have stepped forward as ComLink+ befrienders, bringing their knowledge in financial literacy directly to our families.
23. The second unique value proposition is businesses’ ability to transform social impact into sustained change.
a. Over the past decade, DBS, DBS Foundation, and your partners have supported the growth of over 140 businesses with a strong social mission. In 2022, you worked with your partners to launch 22 community programmes across key markets. These programmes are projected to reach more than 7.5 million beneficiaries over the next few years.
b. DBS Foundation has also contributed over $30 million to the ComLink+ Progress Packages for Preschool and Home Ownership.
c. I would like to thank you once again, for your strong partnership with MSF and your generous contributions of time, talent and resources.
24. Today, as we discuss the changing role of enterprises, I am glad to hear that at the DBS Foundation, you are taking steps to encourage collective action by launching the new Impact Beyond Award - to support trailblazing businesses with meaningful solutions. I am excited to see the kinds of innovative solutions that will come out of this.
Conclusion
25. We hope more partners will work alongside the Government to support those in need. Together, we can journey with them towards their goals, regardless of their starting point.
26. I look forward to more of such efforts and DBS and DBS Foundation’s continued partnership. Thank you.